The magic of shooting three epic fantasy movies all at once: as soon as the first film bows in theaters, the next installment is right on its heels. And you know what that means: promotion, promotion, promotion.
Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey arrived on Blu-ray this week after quietly passing the $1 billion worldwide mark earlier this month. That could have been the sign of a lull for the successful Tolkein franchise, but to ensure Middle Earth fever while also reminding us that he's actually the king of the fantasy world, Jackson held a live-streaming event to reveal to fans the very first footage of his 2013 follow-up, The Desolation of Smaug. Jacksons' reveal was for privileged purchasers of the Blu-ray only (with no plans in place to post the coveted footage online), but Hollywood.com was on hand to check out the footage and hear what the director had to say about the anticipated sequel. No rest on the road to the Lonely Mountain.
RELATED: Exclusive: Martin Freeman Returning to 'Hobbit' in May to Complete 'There and Back Again'
Sprinkled throughout the event were snippets from the upcoming film, though no cohesive trailer — that's saved for this summer, folks — as well as questions from fans and friends of Middle Earth. This, of course, included taped segments from Orlando Bloom, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Billy Boyd, Evangeline Lilly, Stephen Fry, Dominic Monaghan, and even Tolkein super-fan Stephen Colbert.
The newest footage revealed that a more extensive look into the backstory of The Necromancer — something new in store for the films versus the book. When asked if "The Necromancer [would] play a bigger role" in his version, Jackson was quick to quip "yes…but that's all I'm saying." The audience was then segued into footage of Gandalf and Radagast entering a dark, ominous, almost jail-esque cavern. The sequence is part of the "expansion" of The Hobbit that Jackson mentioned, which focuses largely on building out the story of The Necromancer, played by Smaug voicer and villain-du-jour, Benedict Cumberbatch.
The quick :30 seconds (if that) of footage opened on Gandalf seemingly on a quest of his own to find out why the sword Glamdring "got out into the world," only to discover that there's much more at play here — tying into this newer Necromancer storyline. The wizard Radagast appears (seemingly out of nowhere) and confusedly asks "why am I here, Gandalf?" There are doorways to the tombs where we meet the two wizards are covered with twisted and rusted ironwork: all doors to small rooms, destroyed. "This is not a nice place to meet," Gandalf stated, before Radagast followed up with the question "who's buried here?" Gandalf seems to take in all the destruction around him (the tomb/underground-looking prison is largely broken and destroyed), and explained that the destroyer of the cell/tomb spaces "would've been known only as a servant of evil." And when Radagast asked "who would break into such a foul place," Gandalf ominously stated "No one, these tombs were opened from the inside" before the scene cut away.
RELATED: Making Sense of Kili, The Hot Dwarf
There was talk of hot dwarves (we're not the only ones obsessed), the visual creation of Mirkwood, Bard the Bowman, aka "one of the really cool things about the second movie," and even a "not quite there yet" sneak peek of Smaug's CGI creation (he was getting a wee bit of a wing-expansion). While Jackson cited "the confrontation between Smaug and Bilbo" as the scene he's most excited to see play out on screen, he did acknowledge that middle films — much like Middle Earth itself — can be quite the challenge. "It is complicated to do a middle film," Jackson explained, answering a fan question, "but the advantage is … we have multiple story lines ... and we can start following multiple characters." A solid change up from the first, very-linear (storyline-wise) plot of An Unexpected Journey.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug arrives Dec. 13, 2013. An Unexpected Journey is out now on Blu-ray in both 2D and 3D versions.
Follow Alicia on Twitter @alicialutes
[Photo Credit: Warner Brothers]
You Might Also Like:15 Oscar-Winning Nude ScenesYoung Jack Black Is Totally Unrecognizable

"All right, one last job." So many of Hollywood's reformed criminals have delved back into their old ways at the behest of a persistent colleague with a promising new bounty. The latest entry to tackle this, and a number of the genre's other reliable elements so it seems, is Pawn — cinematographer David A. Armstrong's feature debut, which stars Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, Common, and a jarringly English-accented Michael Chiklis.
At the beginning of the exclusive trailer below, gangster Chiklis is beckoned to return to the game. This call of the con — the question of whether man can truly change — springs Pawn's cast into a methodical heist that goes haywire. The frenetic video lands crooked cop Whitaker, his associate Marton Csokas, and the "'Ello Guvnah!"-ing Chiklis amid a diner hold-up that escapes their grip when the mysterious "Davenport" works his way into the equation.
Check out the trailer below.
Pawn arrives on Blu-ray and DVD April 23.
Follow Michael Arbeiter on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter
[Photo Credit: Anchor Bay Films]
You Might Also Like:15 Oscar-Winning Nude ScenesYoung Jack Black Is Totally Unrecognizable

New Releases:
Californication: Season 4 (Showtime, $26.99)
Click here to buy it.
Cars 2 (Disney, $24.99)
Click here to buy it.
Check back soon for a full review!
Crazy Stupid Love (Warner Bros, $24.99)
Click here to buy it.
We were big fans of the movie and we had a chance to check out the disc. Read our full review here.
Snow Flower and Secret Fan (Fox, $24.99)
Click here to buy it.
Tabloid (MPI, $18.99)
Click here to buy it.
The Toy Story Trilogy (Disney, $67.99)
Click here to buy it.
Trespass (Millenium, $19.99)
Click here to buy it.
Water for Elephants (FOX, $21.99)
Click here to buy it.
Water for Elephants was supposed to be the proof that R. Patz had what it took to carry his own movie, that he was more than a hearthrob (see: Leo Dicaprio post-Titanic). I'm not sure he completely won over the crowds with this one, but he walked away unscathed. Water for Elephants is a good or bad film so much as it's there, a soulless drama with a dazzling period backdrop. The circus scenes alone may make this a worthy Blu-ray, but I'd only recommend to the biggest of Pattinson fans.
Catalog Releases:
A Christmas Carol: 60th Anniversary Diamond Edition (VCI, $9.99)
Click here to buy it.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Miramax, $10.99)
Click here to buy it. Few caught George Clooney's first foray into directing in theaters. Makes sense—the mind-bending drama penned by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) focuses on the life of Gong Show host Chuck Barris, who believed himself to be a spy. Wacky, fun and worth checking out.
Cop Land (Miramax, $10.99)
Click here to buy it.
Hook (Sony, $14.99)
Click here to buy it. I've been told the only reason I love this movie is due to my childhood nostalgia. That's fine. This fantastical Spielberg movie is awesome.
Phantom of the Opera (Image, $23.99)
Click here to buy it.
Scrooged (Paramount, $16.99)
Click here to buy it.

As we grow close to the Holiday shopping season, it's only inevitable that each week's crop of Blu-ray releases gets better and better. Even with that in mind, there are quite a few stellar releases this week that are worth your immediate attention. However, there is one particular release that I think is a Must Own for anyone with a Blu-ray player: Sherlock.
Yes, in a week that sees the retail release of both Scott Pilgrim and the Criterion Collection of Antichrist, I think the best buy of the week is the first season of a BBC miniseries you've probably never even heard of. I realize that a modernization of Sherlock Holmes probably doesn't sound amazing, but I assure you that it not only is, but that the first episode of it alone will make you forget all about Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Ritchie's recent film. Martin Freeman is great as a danger-seeking Watson, but it's Benedict Cumberbatch that steals the show as the funniest, sharpest, most acerbic and delicately unhinged Sherlock yet put to screen.
But more on that below. On to what else is New in Blu!
Top Shelf - Any elaborate collector's editions or box sets. [Note: These aren't necessarily the picks for the best releases of the week, rather they're just the sets that go above and beyond what normal Blu-rays do. Plus, they probably cost more.]
Middle Shelf - Standard releases of fairly well known movies available at a reasonable price.
Bottom Shelf - Titles that are either A) suspiciously cheap or B) being released with very little fanfare.
------------------
Top Shelf
Antichrist ($29.49, Criterion)
The Features: An HD transfer supervised by both Lars von Trier and his DOP Anthony Dod Mantle; Commentary from director Lars von Trier and film scholar Murray Smith; several making-of segments and cast/crew interviews; a documentary on its world premiere; a book containing an essay by Ian Christie.
The Movie: If Antichrist doesn't mess you up, you're not a normal human being. To say it's not for everyone is an understatement: It's an (absolutely gorgeous) horror movie for the art house crowd featuring two staggering performances from stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Who Should Buy It: Film students, von Trier devotees, lovers of film as an art form regardless of how harrowing it can be.

Making an earnest cinematic argument for the immortality of the soul and the existence of an afterlife without delving into mushy sentimentality is a difficult task for even the most gifted and “serious” of filmmakers. Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson discovered as much last year when his sappy grandiose adaptation of the ethereal bestseller The Lovely Bones opened to scathing reviews. Critics by and large tend to bristle at movie renderings of what may or may not await them in that Great Arthouse in the Sky.
And yet filmmakers seem determined to keep trying. The latest to make the attempt is Clint Eastwood who throughout his celebrated directorial career has certainly demonstrated a firm grasp of the death part of the equation. His filmography with a few notable exceptions practically revels in it: of his recent oeuvre Invictus is the only work that doesn’t deal with mortality in some significant manner. With his new film Hereafter Eastwood hopes to add immortality to his thematic resume.
The film's narrative centers on three characters each of whom has intimate experience with death and loss. Their stories in true Eastwood fashion can ostensibly be labeled Sad Sadder and Saddest: Marie (Cecile de France) is a French TV news anchor who’s haunted by disturbing flashbacks after she loses consciousness — and briefly her life — during a natural disaster; George (Matt Damon looking credibly schlubby) is a former psychic whose skills as a medium are so potent (the slightest touch from another human being triggers an instant powerful psychic connection a la Rogue from X-Men) they’ve left him isolated and alone; Marcus is a London schoolboy who retreats into a somber shell after losing his twin brother in a tragic car accident (both brothers are played rather impressibly by real-life twins Frankie and George McLaren).
Humanity offers little help to these troubled souls surrounding them with skeptics charlatans users and deadbeats none of whom are particularly helpful with crises of an existential nature. Luckily there are otherworldly options. Peter Morgan's script assumes psychics out-of-body experiences and other such phenomena to be real and legitimate but in a non-denominational Coast-to-Coast AM kind of way. Unlike Jackson’s syrupy CGI-drenched glimpses of the afterlife Eastwood’s visions of the Other Side are vague and eery — dark fuzzy silhouettes of the departed set against a white background. Only Damon’s character George seems capable of drawing meaning from them which is why he’s constantly sought out by grief-stricken folks desperate to make contact with loved ones who’ve recently passed on. He’s John Edward only real (and not a douche).
Marie and Marcus appear destined to find him as well but only as the last stop on wearisome circuitous and often heartbreaking spiritual journeys that together with George’s hapless pursuit of a more temporal connection (psychic ability it turns out can be a wicked cock-blocker) consume the bulk of Hereafter’s running time. We know the three characters’ paths must inevitably intersect but Morgan’s script stubbornly forestalls this eventuality testing our patience for nearly two ponderous and maudlin hours and ultimately building up expectations for a climax Eastwood can’t deliver at least not without sacrificing any hope of credulity.
It should be noted that Hereafter features a handful of genuinely touching moments thanks in great part to the film's tremendous cast. And its finale is refreshingly upbeat. Unfortunately it also feels forced and terribly unsatisfying. Eastwood an established master of all things tragic and forlorn struggles mightily to mount a happy ending. (Which in my opinion is much more challenging than a sad or ambiguous one.) After prompting us to seriously ponder life’s ultimate question Eastwood’s final answer seems to be: Don’t worry about it.